A professional football player for the Canadian Football League (CFL), Qadr Spooner, has been suspended for the first two games of the 2018 season after being suspended for using PEDs.
An offensive lineman for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Spooner has come forward denying that he knowingly took advantage of the performance enhancing drug known as Superdrol. The CFL (as well as the NFL and the NCAA) have banned Supedrol from being used, classifying it as a performance enhancing drug alongside dozens of other substances.
Superdrol happens to be the “brand name” for a very popular anabolic steroid, a synthetic and “designer” steroid that is also called methasterone or methyldrostanolone. Originally designed and put into testing during the 1960s, the company behind this drug (the Syntx Corporation) had not been producing the drug for some time. In the early 2000’s, it resurfaced in the US as an over the counter weight loss supplement but was later classified as a Schedule II substance in the US.
This all happened under the Designer Steroid Control Act of 2014, clearing this drug from the shelves and making sure it could no longer be sold in the US. In Canada, however, it’s still possible to get your hands on supplies of Superdol – if you know where to look.
An immensely popular steroid, in large part because it can be taken orally and produce transformative performance enhancing benefits, Superdrol does have some serious side effects. Heart problems in particular are a major threat when using Superdrol, especially when you’re a big enough human to be a professional offensive lineman for football.
Standing at 6 foot 4 inches tall, and weighing in at just over 310 pounds, Spooner is a very big man. Part of his defense (and a big part of his appeal to the public) is that he was using dietary supplements to cut weight off of his frame, and that Superdrol must have been included in the supplements he was using to do so.
Spooner has released a statement, telling the public that he had zero intention of cheating or using PEDs. He states that he didn’t know about Superdrol, has never used PEDs for a competitive advantage, and has never had any interest whatsoever – even in passing – of using steroids.
Spooner also said that he doesn’t like putting any chemicals into his body, and that he will only use supplements to achieve his short term goals. He used weight loss supplements to get his weight down for the season, and has used supplements in the past to recover from injury. Other than that, his statement says, he’s never tried to cheat the game with modern chemistry.
Spooner and his agent both are contesting that he must have had a tainted weight loss supplement that led to this positive test. He’s also gone on the record as stating that he doesn’t know which of the supplements he used was tainted, and that he’ll likely never know. None of the supplements he referred to had Superdrol listed on their ingredients, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t a part of the formula.
At the end of the day, Spooner is accepting responsibility for putting something into his body that shouldn’t have been there. His coach, Kyle Walters, said that he is disappointed to be without one of his top lineman for the first two games of the season, but that he stands behind the man that is Qadr Spooner.
Walters went on to praise the PED detection platform that has been built by the CFL, in conjunction with the Canadian Football League Players Union. The coaching staff, team, and Spooner himself are looking for a clean and level playing field.
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/4379126/blue-bomber-qadr-spooner-gets-suspended-for-positive-drug-test/